The present invention relates to a device for removing a substance deposited on the surface of a sheet and, more particularly, to a device for removing toner or similar image forming substance from the surface of a recording sheet.
A device having the above capability has recently been proposed in order to recycle recording sheets carrying images formed by an electrophotographic copier or similar image forming apparatus. Usually, an image formed on a sheet consists of relatively thick and large masses of toner forming major parts of the image, and fine solitary toner particles spaced from the masses. The conventional device has a problem that because many of the solitary toner particles exist around the edges of the image, a separating member included in the device cannot remove all the solitary particles from the sheet. Another problem is that the separating member cannot be smoothly separated from the sheet and is apt to be damaged.